(By Juan Cole) A new report by three respected jurists argues that photographic evidence provided by a defector from the Syrian police proves systematic torture and summary execution of thousands of prisoners by the Baath regime headed by Bashar al-Assad. Ian Black at the Guardian broke the story . The authors of the report write, […]
Archives for January 2014
Iran says it starts implementing nuclear deal
TEHRAN: Iran’s state TV says the country has halted its most sensitive uranium enrichment work as part of a landmark deal struck with world powers. The broadcast said Iran halted its 20 per cent uranium enrichment, which is just steps away from bomb-making materials, by cutting the link feeding cascades enriching uranium in Natanz. It […]
Netanyahu Tells Kerry he will Grab 13% of Palestinian West Bank
(By AFP) Israel wants to annex fourth settlement bloc: radio (via AFP) Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told US Secretary of State John Kerry that he wants to annex a fourth bloc of West Bank settlements, army radio reported on Sunday. Until now, Israel has always spoken of its intention to annex three blocs… […]
NSA Surveillance is about Control & Leverage, not Security
By Alfred McCoy | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – For more than six months, Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency (NSA) have been pouring out from the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, Germany’s Der Spiegel, and Brazil’s O Globo, among other places. Yet no one has pointed out the combination of […]
After Defending Pot, Obama has to Pardon Medical Marijuana Growers He Jailed
(By Juan Cole) Barack Obama has a weed problem. Not just that he’s admitted using it. He said clearly when campaigning for president in 2008 that he approved of medical marijuana. Yet his Attorney General, Eric Holder and his Department of Justice went on to launch punitive campaigns against legitimate marijuana businesses operating within state […]
Gov’t used Surveillance of MLK in Bid to Destroy Him: Now they want us to just Trust Them
(By Juan Cole) Among the ironies of Barack Obama trying to sell us the gargantuan NSA domestic spying program is that such techniques of telephone surveillance were used against the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in an attempt to destroy him and stop the Civil Rights movement. Had the republic’s most notorious peeping tom, J. […]
Turkey Purges Officials in Bid to Quash Corruption Probes
(By AFP) Turkey widens purge after graft probe (via AFP) The Turkish government’s mass purge of police and prosecutors has extended to the banking and telecoms sectors as well as state television, the latest fallout from a wide-ranging corruption scandal plaguing the country’s leaders. Local media reported… —– Related video: Press TV reports on […]
Fear is Driving Diplomacy on Syria, not Humanitarianism
(By Martin Gascoigne) Syria, like many countries in the region, is a demographically young country. With a population of 23 million. Slightly over a third are estimated to be below the age of 14. The ‘Arab Spring’ had its well-spring in such demographics. If a lack of hope heralded hopeful changes; it has been a […]
US Intel Officials keep Talking about Killing Snowden, then say “trust us with your data”
(By Mike Masnick) The Fact That The US Intelligence Community So Readily Admits To Fantasies Of Killing Ed Snowden Shows Why They Can’t Be Trusted (via Techdirt) We’ve mentioned things in the past like former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden “jokingly” talking about how he’d like to put Ed Snowden on a “kill list” […]
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